Three-dimensional modeling applications provided by computer-aided design systems may allow a user to create models of buildings, terrain, and other three-dimensional objects. For example, a three-dimensional modeling application may allow a user to construct a model of a building that includes each room within the building. The user may construct such a model in any of a number of suitable manners, including constructing the model as a composite model that includes a plurality of three-dimensional objects. In the case of a model of a building that includes each room within the building, the user may model each room of the building using an appropriate “primitive” such as a three-dimensional solid.
In some cases, a composite three-dimensional model may also or alternatively include one or more other types of “primitives,” such as cylinders, cones, etc. Additionally, in some cases, one or more portions of a composite three-dimensional model may include more complex three-dimensional objects. Still further, in some cases, a composite three-dimensional model may be created entirely or partially from three-dimensional objects, two-dimensional objects, or a suitable combination thereof that were created using a different modeling application. For example, the composite three-dimensional model may include one or more three-dimensional objects that were created using a legacy three-dimensional modeling application and then imported into the three-dimensional modeling application currently in use. In some cases, a legacy modeling application may have been used to create one or more parametric definitions of three-dimensional objects, which may then be imported into the three-dimensional modeling application currently in use in order to generate a composite three-dimensional model that includes the defined three-dimensional objects.
In any event, in many cases when a composite three-dimensional model is created from a plurality of three-dimensional objects, the composite three-dimensional model will include both exterior geometry and interior geometry, such as interior faces, edges, vertices, etc. Depending upon the purpose of the composite three-dimensional model and the context in which the composite three-dimensional model is used, a user of the three-dimensional modeling application may not need to see or manipulate the interior geometry of the composite three-dimensional model. For example, the composite three-dimensional model may be inserted, by way of the three-dimensional modeling application, into a map of a particular geographic area, and users of the map may only need or wish to view and/or manipulate the exterior of the composite three-dimensional model in the context of the map. Nevertheless, the three-dimensional modeling application may require a significant amount of computational resources for rendering the interior geometry of the composite three-dimensional model. Similarly, the definitions of interior geometry in the composite three-dimensional model may significantly contribute to the amount of computational resources required by the three-dimensional modeling application in order to process user manipulations to the composite three-dimensional model.